Patients with, particularly pulmonary, diseases often need an additional supply of oxygen. Commonly, this is achieved by numerous devices. The basic working principle of these devices is that an end of a tube is placed in the respiratory tracts of the patient. This end may be placed in the patient's mouth, in the patient's wind-pipe or in the patient's lung. In the last two cases the tube may generally enter the patient's body via his/her mouth or via his/her nose. Once the end is placed in the patient's respiratory tracts, a generally constant flow of a breathing gas including oxygen is supplied through the tube. By this, the patient is supplied with additional oxygen.
However, the existing systems have certain major drawbacks and problems limiting their usability. As the flow of breathing gas is generally constant, the device is constantly open—that is, gas can flow. This has numerous undesired effects, some of which are discussed below. When the patient using such a device exhales, part of the exhaled “used” air may enter the tube. This is undesired for different reasons. First, the patient may inhale this used air in the following breath, making the method less effective. Second, the exhaled air may cause noise when reentering the tube of the device. Third, this may trigger leak alarms. Fourth, such constant flow may be inconvenient for the patient. Another undesired effect is the fact that part of the breathing gas is wasted—that is, not used efficiently by the patient; when the breathing gas continuously enters the respiratory tracts of the user, it also enters his/her respiratory tracts when the user does not breath in or even when the user exhales. The breathing gas being released during these times cannot be used efficiently by the patient. This is undesirable for different reasons. First, wasting the breathing gas is not economical since more breathing gas is released than used. This leads to costs which are higher than what would be necessary. The second reason relates to the use of oxygen in mobile units and/or at home. In both cases the user generally has to make use of breathing gas tanks or bottles—in the one case at home, in the other case one can think of a user having a moveable or portable device (e.g. with wheels such as a trolley-like device) where the gas tank can be placed upon, allowing the user to leave his/her room of home. If the breathing gas is not used efficiently, the gas tank has to be larger than necessary (to allow for the same duration of gas flow) or needs to be changed more often. Both alternatives are inconvenient for the user.
To summarize, the current state of the art does not use the breathing gas efficiently and has numerous undesired effects, including higher than necessary costs and numerous inconvenient aspects for the user.
EP 1 884 254 A1 relates to a valve balloon for inhalers having a valve mechanism for filling and emptying a valve balloon. Further EP 1 884 254 A1 discloses a mouthpiece and a membrane. To open the valve mechanism, the mouthpiece is pushed against the membrane in a direction being generally parallel to the gas flow, thereby bringing the mouthpiece into communication with an inner space of a balloon. However, pushing a mouthpiece against a membrane to open the membrane may require a certain force. If used continuously in a device for delivering breathing gas to a user, the user of such a device may indeed get tired to repeat performing this procedure and may leave the mouthpiece in permanent gas communication with the other devices. Further, pushing the mouthpiece against the membrane by applying a certain force may seem unnatural and not intuitive for a user. A device as disclosed in EP 1884 254 A1 is therefore not suitable to be used for additional supply of oxygen to a user for a prolonged period of time.
It is therefore an object of the current invention to provide a device, a method, an apparatus and a use of said device for delivery of a breathing gas to a user which overcome or at least ameliorate the mentioned disadvantages.